The welfare status of live cattle exported to Indonesia

After the May 2011 revelations that all was not well in relation to the export of Australian live cattle to Indonesia and the discovery that instances of animal cruelty were occurring at certain abattoirs, the Federal Government sought to develop a new supply chain assurance framework.

This involved the requirement for ESCAS independent Audits of Indonesian feedlots and abattoirs which held/fattened/ processed Australian cattle.

One has to commend the Gillard Government for this action and note that it was more than the former Howard Government.

However, the usefulness of the framework may be limited due to the lack of transparency within these independent audits (which includes extensive black pen censorship) and, the fact that one of the more common sentences contained in these audits to date is a comfortably fuzzy observation which tells Australian citizens and their parliamentary representatives absolutely nothing about the current welfare status of these live cattle:

Click on image to enlarge

SAI Global Limited and its wholly-owned Indonesian subsidiary PT SAI Global Indonesia which conduct these audits may have to be re-educated as to the dictionary meaning of the words transparent, open and honest.

Perhaps this is something for Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Joe Ludwig and his department head can look into before the situation deteriorates.

View from the far side of American politics

2012 U.S. Presidential Election – Republican Pre-selection Race - Iowa Caucus frontrunners in as few words as possible......

Rick Santorum
Conservative, Catholic, Creationist, Climate Change denier, Included in CREW Most Corrupt Members of Congress list in 2006, Former U.S. Congressman and two-term U.S. Senator sacked by voters in 2006,  Lawyer, Energy industry consultant and former FOX NEWS contracted contributor, Endorsed by Rupert Murdoch, Described Wikileaks as being led by a terrorist, Annual income estimated at around $1 million, 53 years old, IQ debatable.

Mitt Romney

Conservative, Mormon, Pro-Lifer, Climate Change sceptic, More policy positions than the Karma Sutra, One-term Massachusetts Governor 2003-2007 then retired, Former private equity dealer, Biotech multinational Monsanto & Co a former client, Endorsed by John McCain, Refuses to publicly release his tax returns & allegations of tax evasion, Personal wealth estimated at $250 million, 64 years old, IQ debatable.

A Christian view of domestic violence [exit laughing cynically]

The Canberra Times reports on U.S. evangelical creationist Jack Chick's hateful Chick Publications, 4 January 2012:

The pamphlet, entitled Is Allah Like You?, depicts an Islamic man who abuses his wife and son until he converts to Christianity and learns the error of his ways.

I wager that comforts the millions of women and children, down the centuries and up to this very minute, who have suffered domestic violence at the hands of ‘good’ Christian men.

CLC Christian Bookworld Australasia and ELE Trust of Queensland and Word Bookstores of Victoria should be ashamed of selling this arrant nonsense.

Mrs Gaddafi calling for your help

Gawd bless us! It’s supposed to be Gaddafi’s rich missus begging for help in the latest scam email doing the rounds. Pity ‘she’ has such trouble remembering how to spell the family surname……………..

I am Mrs. Safia Farkash Gaddafi the wife of the late Libyan Leader Colonel Muammar Gahdafi, I  have funds worth Million Dollars with a Bank in one of our neighbouring country whose name is withheld for now until we open communication. If you are capable of handling this funds, get back to me with your consent and I will explain in details the procedures and percentage of sharing.

Please note that honesty is the watch word in this transaction. I will require your telephone and I will greatly appreciate if you accept my proposal in good faith.

I appreciate your timely suggestion and interest over this matter

Best Regards

Mrs. Safia Farkash Gaddafi

Email:safiagaddafi71@gmail.com

"Moggy Musings" [Archived material by Boy the Wonder Cat]

A rumoured whiff of corruption musing: Which Clarence Valley local currently housed at Her Majesty's pleasure is allegedly having his government-subsidised NCCHC social housing held indefinitely for him because he has family connections in the Commonwealth welfare bureaucracy?

A Clarence by-election musing: One young puss who sometimes calls round to flirt with me says her owner thinks his choice on 19th November isn't a matter of Nats or Labor, but rather one of Greens or Labor - Labor or Greens. Wonder how many other voters are giving the Nats a miss?

An economic credibility musing: Word around the catnip patch is that a certain politically incorrect local wag is asking "If the Greeks are such bad economic managers, why would we vote for one in Clarence?"

A still chortling musing: Word is that former Nats MP Steve Cansdell is handing out business cards with the motto Get elected, stay elected.

An it's only a rumour, but... musing: My little canine friend Veronica Lake swears her hoomins heard that when the then NSW Nats MP for Clarence refused an elector's request, to assist someone currently serving a gaol sentence, he said it was because the person involved was a "crook". Ronnie wants to know what could a disgraced former MP (who admitted to signing a false statutory declaration) possibly know about crookedness? ROFLOL!

Bagging supermarket plastic

http://xkcd.com/990/
Click on cartoon to enlarge

Uncle Joe puckers up and blows the first dog whistle of the season

On the 3^rd January 2012 @JoeHockey tweeted that “I warned of this a year ago!!!”

I clicked on the link wondering what financial horror the federal shadow treasurer had uncovered.

The article merely confirmed the bleeding obvious; “Among banks trading in Australia, the major lenders account for 86.7 per cent of the home loan market.
Well, knock me down with a roo’s tail feather!

Now mortgage holders can switch between banks with no financial penalty for doing so, they are still sticking with the big banks.

I wonder why?

Could it possibly be that these aspirational borrowers believe that solid reputations built up over decades or centuries by the banks really matter in periods of global financial uncertainty?

Or did many of them approve of the big banks following the November 2011 example of the Reserve Bank rate cut? After all there was a surge in mortgage lending to first home buyers and investors right after that – mostly within the banking sector.

Were they cheered by the fact that in December all four of the big banks had passed on another rate cut to their borrowers?

Now Uncle Joe likes to blow his dog whistle loudly over Twitter, this time crying out that Teh Big Four are still big!
A few street mutts might even scamper his way. This old mongrel won't be one of them.
I may hail from a long gone time where you actually knew your bank manager and it was the price of our schooners which concerned us all, but for the life of me I can’t see that consumers exercising choice is a problem for the country. Specially those consumers taking out a new mortgage.

Why should they go and pay higher borrowing rates in the non-banking sector just to please Hockey’s notion of how the world should turn?

Running dogs from http://www.halhigdon.com/
Dog cartoon from http://www.webweaver.nu/